The Husband's Secret

Discovering a tattered letter that says she is to open it only in the event of her husband's death, Cecelia, a successful family woman, is unable to resist reading the letter and discovers a secret that shatters her life and the lives of two other women. By the author of What Alice Forgot.

From the critics

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Initially this book was a little slow for me and I had to push myself to keep going until it got to the interesting part. After that I kept going because the inner dialogues are very entertaining and interesting to say the least.

I am not sure if I liked any of the female characters, even though their stories are interesting and somewhat interconnected. The bulk of the story is about what's in that letter and how it plays out with all these characters.

I did enjoy the complex relationships between some of the characters. Nothing is really what it seems nor is it as simple as we are often lead to believe in other books and Hollywood. Like Tess, Will and Felicity's close but complicated history and relationships.

The epilogue....of what could of been. I wasn't a fan, better to have left it off without knowing the optimistic futures the characters would have had, had the future happened differently.

Started reading this book to find out the "secret". I continued reading to see how the "secret" would impact the other women in this book. I found the ending anti-climactic although I don't know what else would have been a preferred solution given all the facts surrounding all the women's lives.

Could not put it down!! One of my favourites by her. Makes you think about what you would do if placed in the protagonists position. I found the characters relatable and understandable. Chick lit with a bit of thrill.

Once the seemingly separate stories begin to entwine & you realize how each person's prejudices & actions affect the others, it becomes very compelling.
There's a bit more emphasis on the sex than necessary, but overall a very enjoyable read.

I didn't want to read this book. I thought it was chick lit but a friend insisted that I read it and I was surprised. This was an absorbing book which made you question how you would behave in the circumstances the three main female characters find themselves. An above average read.

Summary

There are 3 casts of characters in this book, each with their own story, but Moriarty starts weaving them together about midway through. I had some difficulty keeping track of the kids and who they belonged to. Nevertheless, the theme of secrets prevails. When Cecelia discovers a letter in which her husband confesses to a murder he committed as a teenager, life changes for everyone. His secret will haunt not only him, but the whole cast of characters. If only he had confessed right away!

It is hard to summarize this book without giving away "the secret" but it takes place in Australia and involves the intersecting lives of three women and their families. Amazing revelations near the end!

"There's a telltale heart in Cecilia Fitzpatrick's house, but it's not beating beneath the floorboards. It's lodged in a dusty box in the attic, inside a sealed envelope addressed to her in her husband's handwriting and labeled To be opened only in the event of my death.

"Does Cecilia, a generally happy Australian housewife with three young daughters and a booming sideline in Tupperware sales, shrug and put the letter back where she found it? Because this book's title, The Husband's Secret, is what it is (and because human nature is what it is), you know the answer, dear reader: She does not. And it's a credit to the author, probably best known for her 2010 book-club favorite What Alice Forgot, that the secret hits as hard as it does when it's finally revealed more than 150 pages in. Despite its awkwardly soapy title and pink-petaled cover, The Husband's Secret is a sharp, thoughtful read — a sneaky sort of wolf in chick-lit clothing. It's also darker and less whimsical than the twinkly, rom-comish Alice. Liane Moriarty weaves Cecilia's story in with those of two other women in crisis: Tess, a Melbourne marketing exec reeling from a suddenly broken marriage, and Rachel, a widow haunted by the unsolved murder of her teenage daughter more than 25 years earlier.

"But Secret isn't all Down Under noir, either; even as these three women's lives are blown apart, they still have jobs and families and mostly intact senses of humor, and they carry on. When Tess' husband tells her that he's fallen in love with her cousin, who is also her best friend, she can't help thinking how much he looks like her 6-year-old begging for a contraband cookie. ('' 'Please, Mum, I want that sugary treat with all the preservatives and the cleverly branded packaging and I know I promised I wouldn't ask for anything but I want it.' '') The beseeching eyes are the same: '' 'Please, Tess, I want your delicious-looking cousin and I know I promised to be true to you in good times and bad, in sickness and health, but pleeeease.' '' Moriarty ultimately can't resist wrapping up her story lines with a bow that will probably feel too shiny and pink-petal neat for some. But you don't need a husband or a secret to feel for her characters' very real moral quandaries, and to want that shiny bow for them a little bit, too."